This little town now has its very own library situated in buildings which once housed a local health clinic – it’s associated with the Central Highlands Library system so borrowers can access any of the books on their catalog. It is great not to have to go to the Woodend or Kyneton Library, or to use the funny Library Bus which came to town on Mondays and had a very limited selection of reading matter. Some of the profits from the town’s Easter Art Show were donated to the new library and used to purchase a variety of books on different crafts chosen by one of my local stitching friends, so I knew they would be worthwhile. Ever the reader of anything to do with textiles, I borrowed a book on feltmaking, something I have done with mixed results in the past. This book has a couple of chapters on making felt vessels, and having long admired those made by Teresa Poletti Glover, I decided to have a go.
This was the process….wool fibres layered over a shape, covered with some old panty hose, wet down with soapy water, and gently rolled against the sides of a bucket until the fibres felted. Then it was fulled until it shrank further and was shaped by hand. It was a little more complicated than that, but there are lots of instructions online for this technique if you are interested.
A woolly blob…..
After the first felting……
The finished vessel.
I think I may add some stitching to embellish it a bit, but was so pleased with it that I made another one this afternoon. I have lots of ideas about how I might vary the surface and shape or even to include some natural dyeing……I think I need something a little different to everyone else for next year’s Embroiderer’s Guild Exhibition. There will be some more experimentation so do watch this space!
This afternoon’s creation is still a bit damp so the colours might be a little different (lighter) when it is totally dry.
Gorgeous Sue, I love those teal blues. We have that book in our local library-must go and borrow it again.
Great vessels, they look so organic. Good news too that a library is opening when so many of ours in the UK are closing.
Great vessel making, Sue! you must be pleased with your new library offering, as it obviously does, such inspirational books.
Fabulous work of art. You made it sound so easy.
I once worked in a library for while and did afew excursions on their mobile library and it was rather pleasant carousing round the oxfordshire countryside greeting aged folks mostly, who came and chatted and selected or ordered books.
Mary Anne (MaggiesMumblings blog) and I were only chatting this week about how many libraries are closing in Uk and Canada, or having book collections reduced. Infact in Hulls centrallibrary we lost thousands of books and now have shelves upon shelves of urdu/croation/polish/africaans/ bengali etc etc!
True comment on what the east yorkshire population has become nd right that our population might want to read in their own tongue.
But I do wonder if there are as large a selection of english titles in those particular countries!!
Amazon have at last sold more download books than books and that too is worry for the books survival………….too soon it may become a part of history! We must continue to buy and loan them out at libraries!!
i did a workshop with the felteimng lady ? Ewa, sorry always forget her christian name lol
It was interesting must admit and I loved my gossamer fine vessel but it was of cousrse impractical whereas yours are stunning! That first is crocus like and the colours are stunning………….Id say you are a natural felter gal!
that technique I havent tried but it does look achieveable ona worktop too, which is about as much effort as I like to put into wet felting. I swear it enlarges the breasts all that rolling back and forth LOl and I dont need any more muscle or weight there!!!
Great news about your library and just shows you what you can achieve with the right book to hand! And great subjects to photograph of course as well lol
Gorgeous. I want one !!! No doubt about you.
Great results. The eucalyptus dyed wool would look good too, I think
Well done on the vessel, it’s wonderful.. I too admire Teresa’s work.. looking forward to more vessels..
hugs
Beautiful felted vessels. I love the colour gradations and the slightly asymmetrical shapes–will look forward to seeing these ideas develop.